Occupy Portland is a nonviolent movement for accountability in the United States government. At 12PM on October 6th, 2011 we will assemble at Tom McCall Waterfront Park, 1020 Southwest Naito Parkway in Portland, OR.

We will gather in solidarity with the ongoing protest in New York City, Occupy Wall Street, and the growing number of cities whose people will no longer sit back watching corporate and special interests run their government. We are citizens of the United States, and this country is ours. We will take it back.

It is no longer enough to vote and to participate in the political system because our political system has been altered drastically from its intended and proper function. Currently, we are allowed to pick from a few candidates whose campaigns are funded more and more by large organizations, corporations, and special interests. The success of their campaigns depends entirely on how the corporate mass media presents them. When our elected officials enter office they then pander to the small groups responsible for their election. Even good men and women cannot make real improvements that benefit the American people.

We are one city in a growing national movement of people who no longer feel that their government works in their best interest. We will assemble on October 6th to demonstrate peaceful, substantive democracy and work for real change.

As we gather together in solidarity to express a feeling of mass injustice, we must not lose sight of what brought us together. We write so that all people who feel wronged by the corporate forces of the world can know that we are your allies.

As one people, united, we acknowledge the reality: that the future of the human race requires the cooperation of its members; that our system must protect our rights, and upon corruption of that system, it is up to the individuals to protect their own rights, and those of their neighbors; that a democratic government derives its just power from the people, but corporations do not seek consent to extract wealth from the people and the Earth; and that no true democracy is attainable when the process is determined by economic power. We come to you at a time when corporations, which place profit over people, self-interest over justice, and oppression over equality, run our governments.

We have peaceably assembled here, as is our right, to let these facts be known.

They have taken our houses through an illegal foreclosure process, despite not having the original mortgage.

They have taken bailouts from taxpayers with impunity, and continue to give Executives exorbitant bonuses.

They have perpetuated inequality and discrimination in the workplace based on age, the color of one’s skin, sex, gender identity and sexual orientation.

They have poisoned the food supply through negligence, and undermined the farming system through monopolization.

They have profited off of the torture, confinement, and cruel treatment of countless nonhuman animals, and actively hide these practices.

They have continuously sought to strip employees of the right to negotiate for better pay and safer working conditions.

They have held students hostage with tens of thousands of dollars of debt on education, which is itself a human right.

They have consistently outsourced labor and used that outsourcing as leverage to cut workers’ healthcare and pay.

They have influenced the courts to achieve the same rights as people, with none of the culpability or responsibility.

They have spent millions of dollars on legal teams that look for ways to get them out of contracts in regards to health insurance.

They have sold our privacy as a commodity.

They have used the military and police force to prevent freedom of the press.

They have deliberately declined to recall faulty products endangering lives in pursuit of profit.

They determine economic policy, despite the catastrophic failures their policies have produced and continue to produce.

They have donated large sums of money to politicians supposed to be regulating them. They continue to block alternate forms of energy to keep us dependent on oil.

They continue to block generic forms of medicine that could save people’s lives in order to protect investments that have already turned a substantive profit.

They have purposely covered up oil spills, accidents, faulty bookkeeping, and inactive ingredients in pursuit of profit.

They purposefully keep people misinformed and fearful through their control of the media.

They have accepted private contracts to murder prisoners even when presented with serious doubts about their guilt.

They have perpetuated colonialism at home and abroad. They have participated in the torture and murder of innocent civilians overseas.

They continue to create weapons of mass destruction in order to receive government contracts. *

To the people of the world,

We, the New York City General Assembly occupying Wall Street in Liberty Square, urge you to assert your power.

Exercise your right to peaceably assemble; occupy public space; create a process to address the problems we face, and generate solutions accessible to everyone.

To all communities that take action and form groups in the spirit of direct democracy, we offer support, documentation, and all of the resources at our disposal.

We need a robust plan and action – like the New Deal – based on real needs of Main Street.

It may take $2 trillion or more in stimulus and public works spending. And soon.

And we need to bust an erroneous “Big Lie” myth – that a revived economy can be achieved by cutting jobs, cutting budgets and shrinking government. It’s a myth – just plain untrue.

No business enterprise (Wall Street or Main Street) will expand and create jobs if there are no customers. And customers appear when they have spending power – or, when our government chooses to be “the customer” by funding big-ticket items that we desperately need and that benefit our communities and the nation as a whole.

Everyone knows we need it. We have crumbling streets and bridges; unsustainable energy policies; schools needing upgrades, and health care to deliver to an aging population.

These results – a jobs program, busting myths, and real support for Main Street – may themselves depend on an aroused citizenry making demands, and enacting game-changing reforms such as public campaign financing, restrictions on corporate spending on elections, and media ownership in the public interest.

And the federal deficit? Of course it’s an issue. But we all know that deficits result from a moribund economy where 2 out of 10 workers are not working! Or when we take on unfunded wars while simultaneously cutting taxes for the most-wealthy among us. Or when we fail to tax ourselves – based on ability to pay – to fund infrastructure and public services at a level we all demand.

Winner-Take-All Politics:

Did you know: Taxes on the super-rich today are ONE HALF what they were several decades years ago .. a time when the economy was humming along with nearly full employment. (Read Winner-Take-All Politics, cited below).

And – this failure of our tax system to produce needed revenues is NOT an accident. Alarmingly, it’s purposeful – brought about by behind-the-scenes lobbying on behalf of those who benefit handsomely and who reward the favors through campaign contributions and election-season TV ads and mailings.

If you have not read “Winner-Take-All Politics: How Washington Made the Rich Richer, and Turned it’s Back on the Middle Class” – by Jacob Hacker and Paul Pierson (2010) – I highly recommend it. Their book explains in detail how and why we’ve been losing out on the American Dream for decades. And a steely-eyed diagnosis is necessary to fix any problem. Read this review.

You know the truth. We are witnessing an unconscionable concentration of wealth in America, at the very top. Meanwhile, most households are having to take on second jobs (if they can find one), credit card or mortgage debt, and a lowered standard of living – just to survive.

Usually in a robbery we put the thieves in jail. But now the whole country is being looted — and it’s portrayed (wrongly) as “the business cycle” or “too much government” or the failure of the political party in power. In fact today’s real thieves are those spreading the Big Lie (“trickle-down economics and budget-cutting will create jobs”) – while enjoying their market manipulations and daily bank deposits.

And sadly, the concentration of wealth and looting of America increases crime in our streets – as out-of-work folks seek ways to feed their families. And then the “Three P’s” become our de facto “jobs program” — police, prosecutors, and prison — not really what America needs for a better quality of life for all.

Don’t be fooled: America is not broke.

There are no fewer teachers, nurses, carpenters, bridge-builders, machinists and sales personnel in America today – willing and ready to work – than there were before the economy began to teeter. And – no less need for their work, teaching kids, providing health care, repairing roads and bridges, and otherwise providing the on-the-ground wealth that creates a vibrant economy and standard of living for everyone. We simply need to put them to work again – and with government services that are adequately paid-for by the wealth of the country.

We do NOT need cuts in universal programs. We do NOT need to sell off government parks and assets for a “quick fix” to the deficit, or to lower taxes or privatize services as if that’s the only way to get to full employment. In a time of economic misery, public services and safety-nets are more important than ever. No one ever survives or gets rich totally by themselves.

Instead, our government should be creating jobs for all, through large-scale investment and spending on the things we need as a nation and in our communities. In the 1930’s, FDR understood that, and his administration launched the New Deal, with Social Security, controls on banking, and massive public works projects that improved the infrastructure of the nation while putting tens of millions to work.

To repair what ails us, we need to reclaim democracy for people! – lawmaking and public policies that bring about the America we want and need, rather than concentrated wealth for a very-few and poverty for most. Democracy as promised — Of, by and for the people, not the moneyed interests.

That is why WPC is working for public financing of campaigns — and to overturn wrong-headed court decisions like the Supreme Court’s ruling in Citizens United v. FEC, which gives corporate entities the right to spend unlimited sums to influence elections results.

As we approach the 2012 election season, undoubtedly we will see huge sums spent to confuse and befuddle the voters – thereby retaining real power for the moneyed interests behind the curtain. It may be a battle royal – with clearly differing views, policies and visions for America at stake.

We must demand a genuine democracy — where elections are never for sale and where lawmaking is in the public interest and not filtered or vetoed by well-heeled lobbyists making deals for their corporate clients in the back room.

Help us to overturn the Supreme Court ruling in Citizens United – through an informed, mobilized citizenry and, if necessary, an amendment to the U.S. Constitution to protect the power of voters in American democracy against the undue influence of Big Money.

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